Textile Recycling : Two World Market Leaders Cooperate to Increase Textile Circularity
Textile manufacturer Lenzing and pulp producer Södra have joined forces to contribute to solving the problem of the enormous amounts of textile waste from industry and society. Both companies have been proactively promoting a circular economy for years; through their cooperation they plan to share their knowledge, jointly develop processes, and expand capacities for recovering pulp from used textiles. The goal is to be able to process 25,000 tons of textile waste per year by 2025.
The textile industry has one of the highest environmental impacts. Millions of tons of textile waste are produced each year, most of which ends up in landfills. With the goal of transitioning to a circular economy, both Lenzing and Södra have been independently addressing the problem and each has already been developing appropriate solutions. Both companies are experts in their respective fields with many years of experience in large-scale industry.
Together, they are giving textile recycling a huge boost by further developing technologies to enable wider use of cellulosic waste textiles on a commercial scale. The jointly developed OnceMore pulp will subsequently be co-used, among other things, as a raw material for the production of Lenzing's specialty fibers.
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"The cooperation with Södra is an important milestone in our efforts to implement our ambitious climate and sustainability goals. We are proud to be on this path together with a competent partner. One company alone cannot solve the pressing textile waste problem. Proactive partnerships like this enable us to make progress and bring about real systemic change," says Christian Skilich, Member of the Management Board of the Lenzing Group.
"With OnceMore pulp, Södra has created a globally unique solution to process recycled textile waste into new textiles. With Lenzing as our partner, we are now embarking on the next stage of our journey and will develop a world-class recycling solution for the textile value chain. By means of new investments, we will also expand our production capacity for OnceMore® pulp tenfold in the course of 2022 and increase the share of recycled textiles in the product. These are important steps towards realizing our long-term goal: creating a circular-based textile industry," explains Lotta Lyrå, President and CEO of Södra.
"In this decade of upheaval for our planet, the production of wood-based fabrics from recycled textiles is critical to protecting biodiversity by reducing the pressure on forests and making an important contribution to easing the climate crisis. Canopy is thrilled that these two leading manufacturers are joining forces to provide much needed next generation solutions to the fashion industry. We are pleased that larger commercial quantities will now soon be available to the market," says Nicole Rycroft, founder and executive director of conservation not-for-profit Canopy.